Chess is a fight

... except when it isn't.

After a recent success, I was pretty happy to get another crack at playing the Panov-Botvinnik Attack. But this time round, for reasons that I don't completely understand, the game fizzled out without really getting going.

Exchanging pieces on moves 15 and 16, I'd thought that I would be a touch better in the endgame - and that may even have been right. But when Opponent offered the draw a few moves later I found that I couldn't convince myself that there was any meaningful advantage, and that I wasn't really in the mood for a long struggle... so I agreed.



A bit craven, perhaps. White's risks are pretty limited here and he can hope to make some progress pushing his queenside pawns, so I probably ought to play on for a bit and see what happens.

I was going to write that I thought this timidity was a fault that I often suffered from. However before doing so I went and checked my database - and now I don't think that it's true after all. There's only one other case where I slightly regret agreeing the draw - but, being an adjournment and, further, with the draw clinching the match, I think it's reasonable to consider that exceptional.

Perhaps a fault that I actually do suffer from and which is demonstrated in this game is an over-willingness to simplify. I might think about that one and write more some other time.

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